Defiant: Quantic Dreams Book 2 by Elizabeth McLaughlin (reading list txt) 📗

bathroom! One I had rescued my pride, I decided to abandon the idea of pants all together and try the squat technique again. This time was much easier. I finished my business and used a handful of grass to clean up.

Both waste and ‘toilet paper’ were buried under a thin layer of dirt. Though my hands remained mostly clean, I still made a quick trip to the stream. Early humans must have had it rough. Forget hot food and a clean bed, I was getting homesick for a toilet. I don’t think I looked down for a single moment. My eyes constantly scanned the horizon, ears pricked for any unexpected sound. The cat-thing wasn’t the only predator out here, no doubt, and I didn’t want to spend too long in the open.

Standing in front of the shelter’s entrance, I crossed my arms and glared at the two small observation cameras. I couldn’t imagine the horrors taking place below me. I could only assume that Gabriel had strong-armed his way into a leadership position by now. He would have claimed that it was his right. After all, I did abandon everyone in my quest for self-destruction. Though it hadn’t yet been a week, the disease had been spreading so rapidly I idly wondered if there was anyone left alive to rescue me at all. If that was the case…I put the scenario out of my mind. Starting down that road lead to nothing but hopelessness and despair. I would set my signal fire first and worry about the rest later. Nothing I could do about it.

Chapter Nineteen

It was strange, breathing in fresh air. The air in the shelter was always odorless and the climate control always perfect. Each time I woke was a fresh bouquet of plants and earth fresh to my nose. For that brief moment I could forget that the fate of civilization hung in the balance. I took advantage of my newfound environment to start conditioning myself as a runner again. Every beat of my feet in the dirt harkened back to a primordial rhythm encoded deep in my DNA. If I thought running in the shelter brought on a high, this was positively euphoric. I poured on the steam and sprinted to the stream, around the shelter’s entrance, and back again. When I returned to my camp I took a small piece of my priceless cloth and headed to the stream for the most frigid bath of my life. Thankfully the sun provided ample warmth as it began its journey over the horizon and I dried off quickly.

My presence at the stream appeared to have startled the crabs into hiding. I dug deeply into the muddy banks hoping that I might stumble across one, but no such luck. I needed to find some other source of food. Today. My last pre-made meal Gabriel provided had become the victim of a midnight snack. My body wasn’t used to this. I was using muscles that I hadn’t challenged in years, and I would have bet the mixture of oxygen in the air was different. If I didn’t keep up a sufficient caloric intake I would start losing muscle mass along with body fat.

“At least I’m not suffocating on argon,” I muttered aloud to no one.

Seeing as I had time to kill, I settled on doing some calisthenics. Just like the organizing, performing the same ritual I did everyday served to center my mind. The specter of the cat-thing still hung over my thoughts but instead of fear, I felt motivation. The primal instinct of a caveman defending his territory against all comers. I had to smile a little at that. If you can’t laugh at it all, what can you do. Once I had finished, I ripped off a piece of cloth and stuck it under a heavy rock in front of the cameras. With luck there was someone still peeking at the cameras from time to time and they would see the very human change in scenery and come looking.

I creeped as carefully as I could through the brush, searching for anything that I could use to set a trap. I found a few strong stemmed plants that looked like they would be useful for setting traps but nothing concrete. If I was going to spear small animals or even insects I was going to need something that I could sharpen the end of. Somewhere in this field there could be a sharpened rock but if there was it would be hours or days until I found it. Setting trap pits was my better bet. If only I had some bait. Everywhere I turned my mind put forth ideas and every one was shot down. I was about to get on my hands and knees to hunt down a snack a sharp pain shot through my toes.

Yanking up my foot, I found a long insect with its pincers sunk deep into my big toe. It was four or five inches long, small legs wiggling on each side of a shiny brown carapace. I pulled it off and held the thing up to my face. It swung back and forth, straining its body to curl around and catch another piece of my flesh. My stomach growled, the sight of living prey stoking my appetite. The logic made perfect sense. If crabs were edible, insects should be too, right? I set the bug back on the ground keeping a tight grip on the end of its body. I was counting on the insect thinking I was a predator and retreating back to its den, where hopefully I would find dozens of other bugs. The prospect of eating a crawling bug, never mind more than one wasn’t the most appetizing prospect but food was food.

The insect did indeed lead me back to its nest. A couple feet away I let the thing go and it skittered away. I bent down and put my ear towards the nest, being careful to